A conference radio device

Abstract

This invention discloses a conference audio recording device, comprising: a sound-emitting device for playing far-end sound; a first directional microphone having a first sound-receiving range; a second directional microphone having a second sound-receiving range, the second sound-receiving range being smaller than the first sound-receiving range, the position of the second directional microphone being variable relative to the first directional microphone; and a controller for controlling the position of the second directional microphone relative to the first directional microphone. This invention's conference audio recording device reduces the computational load on processing the acquired sound while ensuring good sound recording performance.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to a conference sound collecting device. BACKGROUND

[0002] Nowadays, video conference is more and more popular, which is used to realize the communication between people in multiple spaces. In addition to image playing device, conference sound collecting device is also needed to be configured. One of the functions of conference sound collecting device is to receive sound from remote end (for example, sound in space A) and play it back on loudspeaker in near end (for example, space B) so that people in space B can hear the sound in space A; another function is to collect sound in near end (for example, space B) and send it to remote end (for example, loudspeaker in space A) to play it back so that people in space A can hear the sound in space B. Currently, conference sound collecting device is usually configured with omnidirectional microphone to realize 360-degree sound collection in all directions. However, the sound collected by such conference sound collecting device contains not only the target sound of the speaker but also background sound, which will interfere with the target sound and result in poor sound collecting effect. In view of this problem, designers have designed sound processing methods to process the sound collected by omnidirectional microphone in order to reduce the interference of background sound, improve the sound collecting effect and increase the inclination. However, the algorithms used in these sound processing methods are relatively complex and have large amount of calculation. SUMMARY

[0003] In view of the above problems, the conference sound collecting device of the present application can ensure good sound collecting effect while reducing the amount of calculation for processing the collected sound.

[0004] The present application provides a conference sound collecting device, which comprises:

[0005] a sound playing device for playing remote end sound;

[0006] a first directional microphone having a first sound collecting range;

[0007] a second directional microphone having a second sound collecting range, the second sound collecting range being smaller than the first sound collecting range, and the position of the second directional microphone being capable of changing relative to the first directional microphone;

[0008] a controller for controlling the position of the second directional microphone relative to the first directional microphone.

[0009] In a preferred embodiment, the second directional microphone is capable of rotating around a rotation axis, and the rotation axis extends in the up-down direction. Thus, the second directional microphone can rotate horizontally to pick up sound of people in different directions.

[0010] More preferably, the conference sound collecting device further comprises:

[0011] a driving member for driving the second directional microphone to rotate;

[0012] the controller and the driving member are electrically connected for controlling the driving member.

[0013] Further, the maximum rotation angle of the second directional microphone is 360 degrees. The second directional microphone can rotate less than or equal to 360 degrees around the rotation axis.

[0014] Further, the second directional microphone is connected to a rotating shaft, the rotation axis is the axis of the rotating shaft, and the driving member and the rotating shaft are connected to enable the rotating shaft to rotate.

[0015] Further, the second directional microphone is connected to the rotating shaft through a bearing ring, the bearing ring is arranged on the rotating shaft, and the second directional microphone is arranged on the bearing ring. The bearing ring is arranged around the rotating shaft and the weight is evenly distributed to maintain the ability to carry the second directional microphone to rotate around the rotating shaft in a balanced state.

[0016] Further, the first directional microphone has a central axis, and the central axis coincides with the rotation axis. Specifically, the first directional microphone is located directly above the rotating shaft, and the second directional microphone moves around a horizontal and circular track.

[0017] Further, the second directional microphone is configured to rotate at least one circle, detect the position of the sound source after rotation, and rotate to a position directly opposite the sound source. In operation, after the second directional microphone detects the position of the sound source, it rotates and stops at a position directly opposite the sound source to collect sound from the sound source; until the volume of the sound source decreases or disappears, the second directional microphone continues to rotate at least one circle to repeat the above detection process to find the current sound source.

[0018] In a preferred embodiment, the first directional microphone is an omnidirectional microphone, and the second directional microphone is a highly directional microphone. The first directional microphone has high sensitivity to sound within a 360-degree range, and its directional pattern is circular, i.e., the first sound collecting range is 360 degrees. The second directional microphone has high sensitivity to sound within a specific angle range, and low sensitivity to sound outside the angle range; the specific angle is the second sound collecting range, which is less than 180 degrees, preferably less than 90 degrees, more preferably less than 45 degrees, and further preferably less than 30 degrees.

[0019] In a preferred embodiment, the conference sound collecting device further comprises:

[0020] A shell, the sound generating device, the first directional microphone and the second directional microphone are arranged in the shell, the first directional microphone is arranged above the second directional microphone, and a through hole is arranged on the shell to allow sound to spread to the first directional microphone or the second directional microphone or the sound generating device.

[0021] The term "sound pickup range" is explained as follows: a microphone has a higher sensitivity to sound within a certain angle range, and a lower sensitivity to sound outside the angle range, which is the sound pickup range. For example, the sound pickup range of a full directional microphone is 360 degrees; the smaller the sound pickup range, the higher the directivity of the microphone, and the narrower the sound pickup range.

[0022] The above scheme is adopted in the present application, which has the following advantages compared with the prior art:

[0023] The conference sound pickup device of the present application cooperates the first directional microphone and the second directional microphone, the first directional microphone receives sound in a larger space, and the second directional microphone can be moved to a position directly opposite the current sound source (for example, the current speaker, whose voice is the target sound of the sound pickup), and the sound of the sound source is received in a targeted manner, the target sound is strengthened, the clarity of the received sound is increased, the sound pickup effect is improved, and the computational load of the subsequent sound processing process is reduced. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0024] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the present application, the following will briefly introduce the drawings needed in the embodiment description. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art without creative labor.

[0025] Figure 1 The structure diagram of the conference sound pickup device according to the embodiment of the present application.

[0026] Among them,

[0027] 1, sound generating device; 2, first directional microphone; 3, second directional microphone; 4, controller; 5, driving member; 51, motor; 52, bevel gear; 6, rotating shaft; 7, bearing ring;

[0028] 100, shell; 101, through hole. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] The preferred embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the description of the embodiments is for the purpose of helping understand the present application, but does not constitute a limitation of the present application.

[0030] Referring to Figure 1 The conference sound collecting device of the present embodiment comprises a sound emitting device 1, a first directional microphone 2, a second directional microphone 3 and a controller 4.

[0031] The sound emitting device 1 is used to play the sound from the remote end. The sound emitting device 1 is specifically a loudspeaker, which is used to play the sound from the remote end to the space, such as a conference room.

[0032] The first directional microphone 2 has a first sound collecting range, which is used to receive the sound in the whole space. Specifically, the first directional microphone 2 is an omnidirectional microphone, and the second directional microphone 3 is a highly directional microphone. The first directional microphone 2 has high sensitivity to the sound in a 360-degree range, and the pattern of the directivity diagram is a circle, i.e., the first sound collecting range is 360 degrees, which can receive the sound in all directions in the conference room.

[0033] The second directional microphone 3 has a second sound collecting range. The second directional microphone 3 has high sensitivity to the sound in a specific angle range, and has low sensitivity to the sound outside the angle range. The specific angle is the second sound collecting range, which is less than 180 degrees, preferably less than 90 degrees, more preferably less than 45 degrees, and further preferably less than 30 degrees.

[0034] The second sound collecting range is smaller than the first sound collecting range. The position of the first directional microphone 2 is fixed, and the position of the second directional microphone 3 can be changed relative to the first directional microphone 2. Specifically, the second directional microphone 3 can rotate around a rotation axis, and then rotate relative to the first directional microphone 2. The rotation axis extends in the up-down direction, so that the second directional microphone 3 can rotate horizontally to selectively pick up the sound of the person in different directions. The maximum rotation angle of the second directional microphone 3 is 360 degrees. The second directional microphone 3 can rotate 360 degrees horizontally around the rotation axis. The second directional microphone 3 is configured to rotate at least one circle, and then rotate to the position opposite to the sound source after detecting the direction of the sound source. In operation, after the second directional microphone 3 detects the direction of the sound source (the direction of the current speaker), it rotates and stops at the position opposite to the sound source to collect the sound of the sound source. Until the volume of the sound source decreases or disappears, the second directional microphone 3 continues to rotate at least one circle to repeat the above detection process to find the current sound source again.

[0035] The second directional microphone 3 is connected to a rotating shaft 6, and the rotating shaft center line is the axis of the rotating shaft 6. Specifically, the second directional microphone 3 is connected to the rotating shaft 6 through a bearing ring 7, the bearing ring 7 is arranged on the rotating shaft 6, and the second directional microphone 3 is arranged on the bearing ring 7. The bearing ring 7 surrounds the rotating shaft 6 and is fixedly arranged on the rotating shaft 6, and the weight is uniformly distributed to balance the counterweight, so as to maintain the balanced state of carrying the second directional microphone 3 to rotate around the rotating shaft 6. The first directional microphone 2 has a central axis, and the central axis coincides with the rotating shaft center line. That is, the first directional microphone 2 is located directly above the rotating shaft 6, and the second directional microphone 3 moves the first directional microphone 2 along a horizontal and circular track.

[0036] The controller 4 is used to control the position of the second directional microphone 3 relative to the first directional microphone 2. The conference sound device further comprises a driving member 5 connected with the rotating shaft 6 to drive the rotating shaft 6 to rotate. The controller 4 and the driving member 5 are electrically connected to control the rotation of the second directional microphone 3. The driving member 5 specifically comprises a motor 51 and a pair of conical gears 52 meshing with each other, one of the conical gears 52 is connected with the output shaft of the motor 51 to be driven to rotate, and the other conical gear 52 is fixedly connected with the rotating shaft 6.

[0037] The controller 4 is further electrically connected with the first directional microphone 2 to receive the sound received by the first directional microphone 2. The controller 4 is further electrically connected with the second directional microphone 3 to receive the sound received by the second directional microphone 3. The controller 4 is further electrically connected with the sound emitting device 1 to transmit the sound source from the far end to the sound emitting device 1 for playing.

[0038] The conference sound device further comprises a housing 100, and the sound emitting device 1, the first directional microphone 2, the second directional microphone 3, the controller 4, the driving member 5, the rotating shaft 6 and the counterweight ring are all arranged in the housing 100. The housing 100 has an upper cavity and a lower cavity which can be isolated from each other, the first directional microphone 2 and the second directional microphone 3 are arranged in the upper cavity, and the sound emitting device 1 is arranged in the lower cavity. The housing 100 has an upper wall and a side wall, and a plurality of through holes 101 are formed in the upper wall and the side wall respectively. The through holes 101 in the upper wall are opposite to the first directional microphone 2 below to transmit sound to the first directional microphone 2; the parts of the side wall opposite to the first directional microphone 2, the second directional microphone 3 and the sound emitting device 1 are all provided with through holes 101 to transmit sound to the first directional microphone 2 or the second directional microphone 3, or to transmit sound from the sound emitting device 1 outward. The rotating shaft 6 penetrates into the upper cavity and the lower end is located in the lower cavity, and the driving member 5 and the controller 4 are arranged in the lower cavity.

[0039] First directional microphone 2 second directional microphone 3 housing 100 first directional microphone 2 second directional microphone 3 sound emitting device 1 through hole 101 The operation process of the conference sound collecting device is as follows: the first directional microphone 2 is relatively stationary to receive the sound in the entire space, and the second directional microphone 3 rotates at least one circle after operation to detect the orientation of the current sound source, usually the orientation with the largest volume, and then rotates to face the range where the current sound source is located to pick up the sound of the current sound source to strengthen the volume of the target sound, increase the clarity of the received sound, improve the sound collecting effect, and reduce the operation amount of the subsequent sound processing process.

[0040] As shown in the specification and claims, the term "comprising" and "including" only indicates the inclusion of the steps and elements explicitly identified, and these steps and elements do not constitute an exclusive list, and the method or device can also include other steps or elements. The term "and / or" used herein includes any combination of one or more related listed items.

[0041] It should be noted that, unless otherwise specified, when a certain feature is referred to as "fixed" or "connected" to another feature, it can be directly fixed or connected to the other feature, or indirectly fixed or connected to the other feature. In addition, the up, down, left, right and other descriptions used in the present application are only relative to the relative positions of the components of the present application in the drawings, and can be referred to the drawings Figure 1 .

[0042] It can be further understood that "multiple" in the present disclosure means two or more, and other quantifiers are similar. "And / or" describes the association between the associated objects, which means that there can be three relationships, for example, A and / or B, which can represent the existence of A alone, the existence of A and B together, and the existence of B alone.

[0043] It can be further understood that the terms "first", "second", and the like are used to describe various information, but these information should not be limited to these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish the same type of information from each other, and do not represent a specific order or importance. In fact, "first", "second", and the like can be used interchangeably. For example, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, the first information can also be referred to as the second information, and similarly, the second information can also be referred to as the first information.

[0044] The above embodiments are only for illustrating the technical concept and characteristics of the present application, and are a preferred embodiment, the purpose of which is to enable those skilled in the art to understand the content of the present application and implement it, and it cannot limit the protection scope of the present application. Any equivalent transformation or modification made according to the principle of the present application should be covered within the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A conference sound pickup device, characterized by comprising: The conference sound collecting device comprises: a sound emitting device for playing a remote sound; a first directional microphone having a first sound collecting range; a second directional microphone having a second sound collecting range, the second sound collecting range being smaller than the first sound collecting range, and the position of the second directional microphone being capable of changing relative to the first directional microphone; a controller for controlling the position of the second directional microphone relative to the first directional microphone; wherein the second directional microphone is configured to rotate at least one circle, and after detecting the direction of a sound emitting source, the second directional microphone rotates and stops at a position directly opposite to the sound emitting source until the volume of the sound emitting source decreases or disappears; the second directional microphone continues to rotate at least one circle, and repeats the above detecting process to find the current sound emitting source again; the first directional microphone is an omnidirectional microphone, the first sound collecting range is 360 degrees, and the second sound collecting range is less than 180 degrees; the first directional microphone and the second directional microphone are electrically connected with the controller, and the controller receives the sound received by the first directional microphone and the sound received by the second directional microphone; the second directional microphone is connected to a rotating shaft, and the second directional microphone is capable of rotating around the rotating axis of the rotating shaft, the rotating axis extending in the up-down direction; the first directional microphone has a central axis, the central axis coincides with the rotating axis, and the first directional microphone is located directly above the rotating shaft.

2. The conference sound pickup device according to claim 1, characterized by The conference sound collecting device further comprises: a driving member for driving the second directional microphone to rotate; the controller and the driving member are electrically connected to control the driving member.

3. The conference sound pickup device according to claim 2, wherein The maximum rotation angle of the second directional microphone is less than or equal to 360 degrees.

4. The conference sound pickup device according to claim 2, wherein The driving member is connected with the rotating shaft to drive the rotating shaft to rotate.

5. The conference sound system of claim 4, wherein, The second directional microphone is connected to the rotating shaft through a bearing ring, the bearing ring is arranged on the rotating shaft, and the second directional microphone is arranged on the bearing ring.

6. The conference sound pickup device according to claim 1, wherein The conference sound collecting device further comprises: a housing, the sound emitting device, the first directional microphone and the second directional microphone are arranged in the housing, the first directional microphone is arranged above the second directional microphone, and a through hole is formed in the housing for sound to be transmitted to the first directional microphone or the second directional microphone or the sound emitting device to be transmitted outward.

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